We’ve received our third wave of changes for TWW. I’m happy to see hunters brought up to the standards of other classes. My primary concern with the class is that it’s bloated with PvP talents (Easily adjustable to be PvE viable) and our raid buff is underwhelming.
Defensives & Externals:
Hunters now have a strong selection of CDs to ensure their survivability in their core toolkit. I’m very happy with the reworked trees from a defensive perspective though there are a few things that can be changed to round out the hunter kit:
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Defensives in general should be off the GCD, especially exhilaration.
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Ghillie suit is janky to play around. This node should also allow us to camouflage in combat - mages already have this with their invisibility. Some combination of pet passive/play dead/feign/shadowmeld make this defensive almost viable as is.
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BM’s Sprit Mend needs a buff for rot damage and self-sustain.
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Aspect of the Beast should be moved to the class tree so all specs can take advantage of this additional survivability, albeit not so much MM if they choose to continue to run Lone Wolf.
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Revise Roar of Sacrifice to protect a target from all damage types, not just critical strikes, to become a 10-20% DR for a party member. Alternatively, move this talent into the PvP talent section, our class tree is bloated with PvP talents that bring no value in PvE.
Class Utility:
The main problem with Hunter’s utility is that it needs to be played around as it’s “situational CC” to get value of it which is less than ideal in M+ when all 3 specs want trash grouped up. Hunters need traditional/simple CC.
Our raid buff desperately needs a buff; I suggest our pet provide the group stats like an external raid buff in the pet utility section.
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Binding shot needs to be played around to get any usage and most tanks tend to not realize that it is even down to take advantage of the stun. Its SL root functionality worked well when necrotic/kite meta existed but I don’t see it being as strong now. Functionality similar to Spear of Bastion/Sigial of Chains as a CC is ideal.
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Intimidation being a 3-target stun with Territorial Instincts is a good start however, it should be modified to all targets within a 5y range of the pet to give us a proper AoE stun that isn’t random for large pulls as that randomness doesn’t guarantee the intended targets will be stunned.
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Bursting Shot being a melee range spell for a mostly ranged class doesn’t make sense, particularly given that it’s a shot or arrow. Currently, it functions like an explosive shot that blew up in our face. The knockback on this spell is a bit too strong.
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Hunter’s Mark should increase damage for the first and last 20% by 5% to compete with what other classes bring to the table. In its current state, an additional 1% overall is very weak compared to any other class buff. Hunters are known for their Kill Shot execute, the current execution of Hunter’s Mark as a Raid buff contradicts this. This is further doubled down by Unnatural Causes being added to the class tree.
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Regarding raid buffs, Survival is still fighting for a raid spot with other melees due to a lack of utility/externals - anything to justify a spot. Something simple like “nearby allies +3yd range to all melee abilities” works. It can make it dramatically easier to conserve space in melee if the playable area is suddenly 3 yds bigger on each side. If every spec is losing +3 yds, this is the perfect way to add it back.
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Scare Beast has no usage currently and is devalued further due to cast time and focus usage. This node needs to be removed or replaced with something similar to Priest/DK’s ability to temporarily control a beast.
Pets Utility
With pets being a core aspect of Hunters, I’m hoping to squeeze in some new group synergy and a reason to be brought to M+ groups - see the last point.
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Provide more pet flexibility - let us set any pet as ferocity/cunning/tenacity in the stable. Hunter always needs to give up something to gain another perk i.e leech or a defensive (Fort of the Bear) just to gain a Freedom (Master’s Call) while a class like Monk or Pally gets this with just a talent point that they would take anyway.
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Allow hunters to lust as a baseline talent, without a ferocity pet. Currently, MM hunters are dropping their Lone Wolf buff to lust and BM/Survival is giving up Fort of the Bear (+ Spirit Mend for BM) just to lust. Every other lust class gives up nothing to press lust.
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Alternatively, if hunters are stuck depending on a pet for utility, return the ability of pets being able to Battle Resurrect by assigning it to a new pet family so Hunters can be a Swiss army knife for m+ comps.
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To better have Hunters synergize with M+ groups, allow them to provide a group buff depending on the type of pet that they have out -
- Ferocity provides the group with crit, haste, and leech.
- Tenacity provides the group with some vers and increases max HP by 3%.
- Cunning provides the group with some speed, avoidance, and mastery. (Maybe increased max attack range or attack speed?)
This provides a reason to bring more than one hunter but doesn’t make it mandatory to stack them, similar to DKs or Warrior’s externals which are nice for raids.
General Class Tree Feedback & Suggestions:
Most issues with the class tree are noted above already - Intimidate (Too limited ‘AoE kick’), Ghillie suit (Not usable in combat), Roar of Sacrifice (Change to 10-20% DR external), utility issues like binding shot (needing to be played around to get any value).
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Aspect of the Turtle needs to solidify the type of defensive that it is - most of the time it functions as an immunity and occasionally it only acts as a 30% DR depending on mechanics.
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Tranq shot is on the GCD still which feels terrible to press.
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There is an excessive amount of pure pvp talents in our tree that can be made viable in PvE. As I mentioned elsewhere, Roar of Sacrifice can be very easily changed to a general 10-20% external and Ghillie suit should allow us to Camouflage in combat.
Survival Feedback & Suggestions:
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Raptor Strike and Serpent Sting should be made baseline to the spec. Being a melee spec but not getting a melee ability (RS) till level 13 is odd. Baseline Aspect of the Eagle has helped make the spec feel less awkward when you need to step out of melee range briefly to avoid getting hit by a mechanic.
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Bloody Claws is really unnecessary/undertuned with all the extra kill command reset talents available in the tree. Perhaps this talent could also increase pet or mongoose fury damage too.
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Mongoose Bite (MB) and Raptor Strike(RS) - We’re investing a talent point to receive an “upgraded” version of a base spell that does similar damage as the Mongoose Fury window is competing with every other damage spell as all of our abilities are influenced by our mastery now. RS and MB need a 25-35% buff to still be relent in ST and they would end up being 20-25% of our ST damage overall.
With the 3rd wave of changes, Mongoose Fury(MF) is more of a maintenance buff. This somewhat feels like the right direction since we have a lot of buttons competing to be clicked during the window between bombs, KC/FS, ES, SH, CA, and harpooning for focus with ToE. This button still needs a minor damage increase feels worth taking.
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I’m not the biggest fan of how Merciless Blows (BM/RS hits 3 targets) works and the talent in general. This talent is trying to shoehorn a ST button (RS/MB) into the AoE rotation instead of MB/RS being a filler button. It adds clunkiness to the rotation. If it remains as is, it should give us 1 stack of Mongoose Fury per target hit.
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Our capstone talents are gate-kept by boring 2 point talents - this doesn’t feel good to be locked out of reaching meaningful capstones as the middle of the tree is t bloated but allows for us to choose what we want.
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If we were able to grab Fury of the Eagle, our rotation can’t really spare a 3s channel for it, leaving this node path unviable.
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Furthermore, Ruthless Marader has very little value for the 2nd point invested (35% → 50%). Either make this a 1-point node that provides benefits when the target is below 50% health, or bake in Ruthless Marader’s effect to FoTE and replace it with the DF S3 effect.
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Lunge is the only talent providing a direct benefit for increased attack speed granted from Trigger Finger (Class tree). Perhaps Lunge (this talent really needs to be renamed) is placed lower in the tree rather than gatekeeping the left side of the tree.
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The mastery changed to increase pet/our damage and provide additional survivability through DR seems very fitting. As noted above, RS/MB need a 25-35% damage increase as they are no longer the only spell buffed by our mastery.
- In case any talent inspiration is still needed:
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Energized Ally - Damaging a new enemy grants you 3% haste for 10s, up to 5 stacks.
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Frenzy Strikes - Butchery/Carve increases the damage of your next Wildfire Bomb by x% for each target hit, up to 5, stacking up to 15 times. n
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Hellcarver - [Butchery / Carve] deals 3% increased damage for each additional target hit.
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Energized Wrath - Uncaps Mongoose Fury stacks for Xs.
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Wildfire Cluster - Wildfire Bomb drops an additional cluster of bombs around the target, each exploding for (33% of Attack power) Fire damage.
BM Suggestions & Feedback:
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AoE being locked behind 3 talent points instead of 4 is a welcome change but it still doesn’t feel great to need to invest these points to unlock our base kit. It doesn’t help that Multi Shot hits like a wet noodle - make Multi Shot baseline.
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The problem with the hybrid AoE options (Barrage, Bloody Frenzy) is that while they activate Beast Cleave, you are missing out on Kill Cleave if it is not talented, which is responsible for a significant amount of AoE.
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A Murder of Crows passive likely would have worked better in the Dark Ranger tree. This proc can be wasted if it goes off on a target that dies shortly after - it should allow A Murder of Crow to proc on the next target if it dies while the DoT was active.
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I’m surprised that Barrage was made into a AoE burst talent which may be useful in situations where you don’t need to commit to full AoE for a raid encounter. I still think this should share a choice node with Flayed Shot to also provide a ST option.
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Kindred Spirits is not a good talent - at no point do we need our maximum focus to be increased as it is constantly being spent between Cobra Shot and Kill Command. To add insult to injury, the talent is a 2-point node that only increases our focus by 10 each level - making this a very weak talent.
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Cobra Senses (Reduces KC by 1s per CS) and Killer Cobra (CS rests KC during BW) both essentially accomplish the same thing and Killer Cobra pretty much invalidates Cobra Sense’s value with how often BW is active (~33% of the time)
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Dire Beast being a focus generator on a 20s CD is a really welcome change for it being such a minor cooldown.
- Here is a list of bugs currently for Survival and BM per the Hunter class discord:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SyyJ9FJ-kU5LMMTsaXIesOUE4dY8cDiTkAVc-s0qw9M/edit?gid=0#gid=0
How are we to discuss what we want when we can’t discuss what is currently in the Beta?